Franklin

"The Kings are no conventional folk group, however. The booming baritone of Ben Nicholls (of the Seth Lakeman Band) is clearly "in the tradition", but the space rock guitar of Richard Warren (ex-Spiritualized) and the jazzy shots of drummer Evan Jenkins (the Neil Cowley Trio) are not. The outcome, recorded in a Gravesend missionary church, is an album that shapeshifts from the solemnity of Reason's Voyage to the shimmering dread of Song of Defeat and the gothic chill of The Reindeer and the Ox. Along the way comes Alouette (yup, that one), restored to the hypnotic charm of its Canuck composers, and conventional outings such as Song of the Sledge. A bleak but absorbing voyage through seafaring history".

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"Inspired, if that's the right phrase, by the ill fated British exploratory expeditions of the 19th Century, the core being that of Sir John Franklin in 1845, Franklin is pure folk. Generating and passing on a tale, weaving a narrative and evoking the feelings of those brave and hardy souls whose own inspiration to seek what lay beyond, often led to tragic endings ... While the Kings' fascination with seafaring culture might have grown men running scared, there's the appeal of a Gothic psychedelia about Franklin - if we can have funkadelic, here's a perfect example of folkadelic".

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""The fate of Franklin no man may know...", that's what Pentangle sang, but wouldn't you know it, the Canadians go and find two of his ships! Lightbulb moment ensuing, Ben Nicholls and associates dreamed up an album to focus on the legacy of the doomed Arctic expedition ... They've curated a diverse selection from familiar trad to wilfully obscure rhyme and whimsy. Through being obsessive they've thankfully avoided the trap of delivering another album of sailor songs, howling winds, churning seas with icebergs and so merit a huge thumbs-up. Yes, there's a concertina here and Nicholls has a voice as huge as a schooner in full mast yet their approach is singular. Remember this is the group where Seth Lakeman meets Spiritualized, whilst producer Ben Hillier has fashioned music for Blur and Elbow. Musically they create an echoing miasma of folksy lyrics, free jazz rhythms and spooked counterpoint guitar, reference shimmering opener "Reason's Voyage" ... Fascinating andsonicallyglorious".